The Testimony of Sheila Holcomb
Delivered from the Hurt of Abuse and the Scars of Sin
My Testimony of God’s Amazing Grace
By: Shelia Holcomb
Before I begin my testimony I feel it is important to
give you some information on my
childhood, so you will be better able to
understand some of the decisions I made
in my life, however stupid they may have
been. But every decision I have made
during my lifetime good or bad is what
has brought me to where I am now and I am
very thankful for the mountains and the
valleys.<
When I was born my mother was only fifteen years old and
now years later and after I went through
the process of forgiving her and working
through many things, I am now able to
look at her life through her eyes to try
to better understand how she must have
felt. Someone gave me this advice when I
was really struggling with all of this, I
was told that maybe I could forgive
easier if I try to see her life through
her eyes and not the eyes of a hurt
child, you know what, it worked, I can
understand her more clearly now. She was
not mature enough to take care of herself
much less a baby. So she would send me
here and there to whomever would willing
to take me at that particular time, most
of the time it was my grandmother,
several times throughout my life she
would decide that she wanted me back and
she would come and uproot me again. I
never really knew any stability in my
life and I always felt as if no one
really loved me or wanted me.
Then at the age of nine she came and got me and took me
away from my grandmother which, really at
this point of my life, was the only
mother I had ever known and I was very
attached to her. Anyway, my mother came
and took me to Illinois where she lived,
by this time she had remarried and she
had two more children by her new husband.
He hated me and the only reason I could
figure out was simply that I was not his
child. Now this was not my fault,
although I did blame myself for many
years. He started just physically abusing
me, but at the age of nine that changed,
he raped me and this abuse went on until
I was thirteen and I finally told my
mother, she didn’t believe me,
actually no one believed me. Finally I
just let it drop and I buried all of
those feelings of anger and hate for
years, that has now all been dealt with
and forgiven and now it is all under the
precious blood of Jesus, Praise God. I
told my mother that I wanted to go back
to Memphis to live with my grandmother
and she consented just because she felt I
was causing so much trouble and she did
not want to be bothered.
Now my grandmother was now also remarried and I
resented him for taking her away from me
too.You must remember I was only a child
and I felt like she was all I had and now
I had lost her too. I was very hateful to
him and caused so many problems, he was
very kind and loving to me but I just
could not accept what he was offering to
me. My grandmother finally after a long
struggle went to the courts and told the
judge that I was out of control and they
just could not handle me any longer, so
they removed me and placed me in a foster
home, the home I went to was wonderful,
but at that time I could not see things
clearly, all I could see was that the
only person who should love me had now
turned her back on me as well, I just
wanted my grandmother so, I ran away. The
courts then really called my bluff, so as
a ward of the State of Tennessee I was
placed in a Catholic all girls reform
school for three and a half years. Now as
I look back, I can honestly say it was
one of the best things that ever happened
to me. But at that time all I could see
was that I was totally alone, unloved and
unwanted in this great big world.
Now I will jump ahead some. In 1987 I lost my three
children to their father and I totally
lost it. I turned heavily to alcohol and
eventually that turned into crack and
cocaine. By this time I had lost
everything including my dignity as I had
turned to prostitution to support my drug
habit. I was arrested several times on
various charges, but I was never
convicted and I never served any time, I
know that God was taking care of me even
back them in my sin, He saw what I would
be one day in Him. I give GOD all the
PRAISE, HONOR AND GLORY for all that I am
today and all that I will be.
The drugs and my roaming had taken me to many places but
on December 20, 1990 I came across a man
that told me about Jesus and how He could
deliver me and make my life an example to
others. I had not eaten in a couple of
days and he asked me if I was hungry, so
he took me to a restaurant and bought me
something to eat. The entire time he
shared about Jesus Christ with me. He
told me Christ could and would set me
free if I was willing, and how He
(Jesus), would give me a new life without
all the pain and turmoil I was living in.
Of course being a Christian does not
eliminate us from pain, trials and
tribulation but with Christ in our hearts
He will give us the strength to overcome
and withstand even in the worst times. I
began sharing my life story with this man
and he still said Jesus is the answer,
and boy was he right. Right there I gave
my heart to the Lord and I decided to
live for Him and serve Him for the rest
of my life.
I had been singing for many years and I had
destroyed my voice through drug abuse, I
just abused the gifts that God had given
me. So I prayed and told the Lord that if
He would heal and restore my voice I
would use this gift for His glory for the
rest of my life. Now, God has done
exceedingly and abundantly above all that
I could ask or think. The songs that I
sing and others that I have written they
are all His I am only an instrument
holding the pen. It does not matter where
you are, Christ will come to you and meet
you if, you are willing to let your life
go and let Him be God of and in your
life.
I have had so many miracles in my Christian life as I
am a walking miracle myself. One of these
miracles really stands out to me and I
would like to share this with you as
well. About four or five years ago I was
diagnosed with an incurable bowel
condition, the doctors were not real sure
what it was exactly, but they had come to
the conclusion that with ulcers all
through my body and many in my bowel
system, they said they wanted to do
surgery and remove some of the bowel. My
reply was that I wanted to get prayer for
this and that I believed that God was
going to heal me and I will not need the
surgery at all. They went ahead and
scheduled me for another scope the
following week, just a few days after
Christmas. Then on Christmas Eve I placed
a long distance call to a minister friend
of mine and asked him to pray for me, he
said no problem but he would need to call
me back in a few minutes. While waiting
for him to call back I got about ten
bibles and placed them opened on the
floor in a circle and one opened in the
middle of the circle. When he called me
back I knelt on the bible in the middle
and said, “pray”. When he
prayed for me the fire of God hit me and
went through me, I had such a peace come
over me. I went over to my bed and fell
asleep (now Adam was put into a deep
sleep in Genesis when God removed the rib
to create woman) God did the same for me
as I lay there sleeping He performed
surgery on me to heal my body. I slept
for seventeen hours and when I woke the
bleeding had stopped and so had the pain,
I knew without a doubt that I was healed
by the precious hand of the Master. I was
on about $400.00 worth of medicine a
month and I went into the kitchen and
threw it all in the trash. I did go back
for the scope when I was scheduled and
the doctors were amazed there were no
ulcers anywhere and I just praised God
for His healing power.
I am now an ordained minister and I am married to a
wonderful man who is also a minister. We
know God has put us together for a
ministry and we are enjoying serving the
Lord together. I am now a southern gospel
singer\songwriter. The Lord has blessed
me and I will continue on this road He
has placed me on for my desire is only to
serve Him. I will travel anywhere I am
invited to give my testimony or to sing
or both. God is wonderful and it is to
His glory that I am writing this, if one
soul is reached in any way then this is
worth everything.
Again I cannot stress enough that this is for the glory
of God that I am here and that my life is
what it is today, for without Christ we
are nothing, but through Him we are joint
heirs with Him. He is our Deliverer,
Savior, Helper, and Healer and any
problem we may have is never to great for
Him to help us, we just have to take it
to Him and leave it at His feet and in
His care. I thank God for His power is
still healing, still saving and still
delivering. He is good all the time. I
have made my mistakes but His grace is
sufficient. God loves us and if we truly
repent and confess our sins, He is
faithful and just to forgive us and
cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If we can help anyone out there, please contact us at
the information provided below and we
will do our best to help in any way we
can. If you have questions about loved
ones who may be on drugs or other
addictions we will try to answer your
questions, if we do not know we will do
our best to find the answer for you. If
you have loved ones that you need prayer
for we will gladly join you in agreeing
for that person for the Kingdom. Please
always remember we are human and we will
make mistakes but just confess to God
those mistakes and get them under the
blood of Jesus as soon as possible, God
still loves us and He will help us in all
of our situations.
GOD BLESS AND KEEP YOU ALL. I GIVE FULL PERMISSION TO
ANYONE WHO CAN USE THIS TESTIMONY TO COPY
IT AND GIVE IT OUT OR TO SHARE IT
PUBLICALLY, BUT PLEASE GIVE ALL THE GLORY
AND PRAISE TO GOD. THANK-YOU. WE ARE YOUR
BROTHER AND SISTER IN CHRIST JESUS.
Jerry & Shelia Holcomb
rainbow@imws.net
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